


Magic 101 (ALTERNATE)

by ToothPasteCanyon (DannyFenton123)



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Alternate Universe - Transcendence (Gravity Falls), Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-08
Updated: 2019-10-08
Packaged: 2020-11-27 08:21:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 15,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20945255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DannyFenton123/pseuds/ToothPasteCanyon
Summary: Anne didn't know what to expect when she went to university, but it certainly wasn't this.ALTERNATE VERSION - NO REFERENCES TO WEREWOLVES





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Magic 101](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13376898) by [ToothPasteCanyon (DannyFenton123)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DannyFenton123/pseuds/ToothPasteCanyon). 

Southern Arizona State University was one of the biggest universities in the country, and with that came a rather wide variety of subjects. They had a lot of business and engineering students, but they also liked to boast about their extensive magic program, which included warding, magical creatures, spells, and even a demonology program.

The University didn’t mention that last one on their front page, though.

Before taking any specialized magic programs, however, all freshmen had to take Magic 101, held in a newly built lecture hall near the edge of campus. On the first day, hundreds of them piled into the rows and took out various forms of note taking apparatus, looking more or less ready to start the semester.

Anne was one of these freshmen, a small, brown-haired woman holding her magi-orb close to her chest as she walked up the steps, eyes shining with a mixture of excitement and nervousness. The rows in the front and the back were filling up fast with students, but she found her seat near the middle, far away from any strangers.

She didn’t expect anyone to talk to her, so she jumped when somebody tapped her on the shoulder.

Somebody with a very… bright choice of clothing was pointing to the seat next to her. “Can I sit here?”

Anne was still taking in that rainbow sweater. “Uh… sure.”

“Thanks!” She flashed a hundred watt smile as she sat down. “I’m Mattie. What’s your name?”

“Anne. Um, Anne Chante, with a silent e.”

“Chant? Like, Anne Chante! Anne Chante! Anne Chante!”

Anne shrank in her seat as she noticed other students giving them an odd look. “Yeah… I’ve heard that one before.”

“You have? Well, I’d better come up with something better then! Anyway, nice to meet you!” Mattie was actually bouncing in her chair. “Ooh, university is so much fun already!”

Anne watched as the woman in the rainbow sweater turned to the person on her other side and started bombarding them with questions. She seemed strange indeed, but ultimately harmless.

(And who was she, Anne thought, to judge strange people?)

At the front of the stage, somebody was walking up to a wooden stand facing the seats. The class quieted down as he cleared his throat.

“Alright,” started the professor, a man with graying hair and a quiet voice that only just carried it to her row. “Magic 101. I’m Professor – Dr - Brown, I’m a researcher here at SASU with a PhD in Theoretical Magicks, and I have written various books on the subject of magic, one of which,  _ The Foundations of Magic and its Principles, Volume One _ , you should have before you today, either as a downloaded or a physical copy. Now, if you would turn to page 48a, the lesson starts with the chapter ‘The Foundations of Magic’, in which it says ‘Magic has been known to mankind since the Transcendence, and ever since has been a cornerstone in American life…”

Anne’s eyes widened; this Dr Brown was going to put her to sleep sooner than he could teach her magic. She looked around to see people in the back rows leaning forwards to hear what Dr Brown was saying, and there was some muttering between the students around her. One guy in front of her packed his stuff up and stormed out of the classroom, shaking his head.

Dr Brown didn’t appear to notice. “And with the Transcendence came the discovery of warding, an invaluable addition to modern society.’ Warding, is, in fact, the first subject we will be covering in this class, and we will have a test on it in a couple of weeks…”

Mattie leaned over, and whispered, “Can I borrow your notes at some point?” Anne nodded, but she didn’t think they’d be very useful.

For the rest of the class, she frantically jotted down whatever seemed important whilst desperately hoping the teacher merely lost his voice and didn’t actually have the dullest, most monotone way of speaking for the rest of the semester. When class ended, it was clear she wasn’t the only one with that hope.

“Wow.” Mattie sat back in her chair as students started filing out of the hall. “I think my four year old could teach this class better than Mr PhD over there. Oh, I’m sorry, Dr PhD.”

Anne couldn’t help but giggle. “Yeah, um, that was… not good.”

“You could say that again.” The person sitting next to Mattie, a large, bearded guy with a deep voice, chimed in. “I just spent this whole class reading the textbook, and I gotta tell ya, it’s not much better.”

“I know what we need.” Mattie was grinning, and even though Anne had known for her all of one class hour, she knew that look meant trouble. “A study group! Let’s all hang out in the library after class and help each other learn! It’ll be so much fun!”

The guy next to Mattie shrugged. “Sure. Don’t have anything better to do.”

“And what about you, Anne? Come on, Anne! Anne! Anne!”

“Um… sure. Gotta… gotta pass this class somehow, am I-“

Mattie wrapped her in a bonecrushing hug. “Yes! I’m in a study group! Aww, this is so exciting! Thank you, Anne! Thank you, Danny! See you after class, study buddies!”

She skipped down the steps of the lecture hall and out the door, waving at them all the way. Anne blinked, then turned to Danny.

“Do you… know her?”

Danny shrugged. “Just met her today. You?”

“Yeah, uh, same here.” There was an awkward pause in conversation, and then: “Um… see you after class, I guess?”

“Yeah, see you after class. Have a good one.” He passed her, and Anne caught sight of a pair of dark horns embedded behind his ears, almost completely covered by his hair. He hunched as he walked, and his shoes seemed all too stubby to house human feet of his proportion; no, those had to be hooves.

So, she was in a study group with the bubbliest person she had ever met in her life and a minotaur. Well, then. This was certainly different from highschool.


	2. Chapter 2

Anne glanced down at the map she’d been given by the university, and back up at the building in front of her. Yes, this was the library. She hoped she wasn’t late. Maybe she’d taken so long looking for them, showing up would just be too rude and-

No. Anne breathed. It was fine, Mattie invited her. She should just go inside.

She ducked in through the double doors and was greeted by a refreshing wave of air conditioning. Computers and magi-orbs - along with a few shelves of physical books – were placed to one side, and tables to the other. Sitting on one of these tables were the somewhat-familiar faces of Mattie and Danny.

Mattie saw her and waved like a windshield wiper in monsoon season. “Anne! Hey, Anne! Over here! Anne!”

Anne hurried over, if only to make her lower her voice. “I’m here. So, um, what are we doing?”

Mattie stood up to wrap her in another giant hug. “Glad you could make it! We’re studying! I’ve got to leave after an hour because my… ahem, babysitter has stuff to do, but we can definitely cover the lesson in that time!”

Danny, who was sitting across from them and hunched over a laptop, spoke up. “I just looked up Dr Brown’s office hours. It’s pretty clear this guy just doesn’t give a shit about our class, which fucking sucks because it’s a prereq for pretty much any magic-based course-“

“Whoa, language!” Mattie swatted at his shoulder. She was giggling, but when he looked up from his laptop, his bushy eyebrows were set in a hard line.

“Don’t tell me what to say.”

Anne shrank back a little in her seat, but Mattie took it in stride. “Oh, okay! Sorry about that; guess I’ve been a mom too long. F-bombs away!”

Danny’s glare disappeared, and he shrugged. “Nah, I get it. You’re good.”

“Hey, I know I can be a bit pushy sometimes.” She smiled at Anne. “If I’m bugging you, you can always tell me to shove off, alright?”

“Oh, no, you’re fine! You’re fine…” Anne thought for a moment. “Um… a-actually, could you, maybe, um, not… hug me, please? I’m sorry, I just-“

“No more hugging, got it. Sorry, Anne.” She turned back to the table. “Alright, wards! Let’s go, study buddies!”

It was, Anne thought, perhaps the single most productive hour of work she had ever had. Danny spent his time trawling through college resources to find information on concepts textbook and teacher could not explain. Mattie was very chatty throughout, but kept it on topic and seemed genuinely interested in the subject material, with a good base knowledge. She was also an excellent teacher; if either of them found something confusing, she had a way of explaining things in a new way that just made sense. Anne tried her best to be helpful and take clear notes, but she couldn’t help but feel that of the three of them, she was contributing the least.

Near the end of the session, though, they encountered a problem none of them could solve.

“Okay,” Danny pinched his nose, deep in thought. “So the strength of the ward is determined by how you write it, but also… emotion and intention? So what if you write it like crap, but you really want it to work?”

Anne shook her head. “I’m not sure, sorry. What does it say?”

“Just intention and emotion. You got any idea, Mattie?”

“No, I’m not sure on that one.”

He sighed. “I mean… whatever. That’s the answer he wants us to know, so it doesn’t matter.”

Mattie made a face. “No, you’re really interested on this one! I’ve gotta go now, but I’ll find out for you, promise.”

“How? It doesn’t say anything about it on the college sites.”

“Oh, don’t you worry. I have my ways.”

Danny snorted. “Alright, then. Have a good one… and, uh, thanks. For inviting me.”

“Oh, no problem! You were great!”

“Nah, I know I came off as angry today, and I’m sorry about that.” He leaned back, staring down at the table. “First day of college was sh- was bad, and I was pretty done by the time I came here. But this… well, this wasn’t so bad, so… why are you giving me that look?”

“D’aww, Mr Strong and Silent talking about his feelings!”

Danny rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Shocking, I know. Now get outta here, ya weirdo.”

“Hey, if you’re trying to insult me, weirdo’s a compliment! Anyway, see you later!” She turned to Anne, and offered a high five. “See you later.”

Anne smiled, and returned the high five. “Yeah. Yeah, this was pretty fun! Um, thanks!”

“No problem!” She backed away, punching the air. “Study group: success! Likelihood of passing class: one thousand percent out of ten! Did I just walk into that wall? Yes I did!”

Once she left, Anne turned to Danny. “So, uh, you want to keep studying, or…?”

“I think I’m done. You still need help with anything?”

“No… no, I’m good. Um, see you… see you later?”

He closed his laptop and stood up, towering over Anne. “Yeah, see you later… Sorry, what’s your name again?”

“Anne Chante… with, um, a silent e.”

“Hey, we match. Daniel Feare’s got a silent e too.” He chuckled. “Feare… It’s kinda appropriate for a guy like me, isn’t it?”

Anne laughed nervously. “Haha, what? I-I don’t know what you’re talking about. Why would you say that?”

“Ah, don’t worry about it. I’ve a weird sense of humor, I shouldn’t try and tell jokes.” He stroked his beard. “You know, your name sounds a little familiar.”

Anne shook her head. “What? Why? I’ve, um, I’ve never met you before.”

“No, me neither. I can’t place where I’ve heard it, but… Eh, it doesn’t matter. See you around, Anne. Thanks for taking all those notes.”

“Oh, no problem!” She waved as he left. “No problem.”

Anne sat there for a second, before picking up her things and going home. That was a good day, it really was.

* * *

Anne got a text as she reached her dorm. It was from her newest added number: Mattie Study Buddy.

_My four year old wants to say hi!_

There was a little picture of her hugging a toddler who had short, dark hair and was wearing Mattie’s rainbow sweater, which looked ridiculously big on them. They were both grinning into the camera.

Anne couldn’t help but smile back. That was adorable, but… wait, who was holding the camera? She could see all four of their hands. She stopped and stared, perplexed, at the image.

There was probably somebody else there, she reasoned. Then she texted back ‘_Awww_.’ and put away her phone. She fumbled with her keys, and unlocked her door.

One bed and one desk greeted her as she turned on the lights. A single bed dorm; independent enough for her, safe enough for her parents. Time would tell if this was a good compromise.

She sat down on her desk, placed her bag down on the floor, and heaved a great sigh. Wow, today had been a day. And it wasn’t over yet, because she still had to call her parents and tell them all about it.

Her phone buzzed again as she took it out.

_We bought too much Pitt Cola. Want one?_

Anne wasn’t one to turn down a free drink. _Yes please! Might help me stay awake during Dr Brown’s lecture :)_

She included the smiley face, so Mattie knew she was joking. Mattie didn’t immediately respond, so she went to phone her parents.

Mr and Mrs Chante answered on the second ring. Their faces showed up on the screen, and she put up a smile.

“Hi, Mom, Dad!”

“Annie? Ah, there you are.” Her father, who was often described by acquaintances as ‘that guy with the curly moustache’, smiled at her. “So, first day of college. How’d it go?”

“It went really well, I think. I had Magic 101 first, then later I had Math-“

“Ah, Magic 101. That’s your ‘class’, right?”

Anne sighed. “Yes, that’s the class I’m taking in my major.”

Her mother pressed forwards. “How’s it going? How’s your professor?”

“He’s… well, he’s alright.”

“What does that mean?”

“Well, um, he’s a little… quiet, but-“

Mr Chante frowned. “You’re not telling us something. Do you need us to speak to the university?”

“No! No, don’t do that, please.” Anne cringed just at the thought. “I’m old enough to handle this.”

“Oh, really.”

“Y-yeah! I, um, I formed a study group, and that’s going well-“

“With who?” Mrs Chante frowned. “Where did you meet them? You’ve got to be careful with strangers; you know more than anyone.”

“I know, I know! Look, I just met them at the library, and they’re all really nice. It’s fine. Everything’s fine.”

Her father scoffed. “Judging by your tone, everything is not fine. Annie, you said you’d be completely honest with us when you took this demonology course.”

“I am being completely honest!”

“Then why are you acting so frustrated right now? You’re hiding something!”

“I’m acting frustrated because you’re being frustrating! You’re just… ugh!”

Silence, broken by her mother as she chimed in. “Sweetie, you’re making your father very upset. He’s just looking out for you, you know. Demonology is a very dangerous choice for a little girl like you.”

Anne rubbed her temples. “I’m not even in demonology right now. I’m still working through the prerequisites.”

“We’re trying to accommodate you as best we can. We still don’t understand why you’d ever think of taking a course like this after what happened to you, but we’re really trying. Can’t you see that? Can’t you appreciate that?”

“I-I know. And-and I love you, it’s just… It’s just...”

“I think you should apologise to your father. He’s very upset.”

“You’re right. I-I’m sorry, Dad. I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

Her dad rolled his eyes. “I don’t want to end this call on a bad note, so I’ll accept it. In the future, I expect complete honesty, do you understand?”

“Yes, Dad.”

“I love you, Annie.”

“I love you too.”

“Good. See you tomorrow, Annie.”

“See you tomorrow.” Anne waved as they hung up, then let her hand droop. God, that one phone conversation was more tiring than an entire day of college.

She started to set her alarm, but realized there was one last text message from Mattie.

_Check your bag :)_

She raised an eyebrow and rifled through her stuff. Her hand touched something cold, and she drew it out. It was a can of Pitt Cola, condensation fogging the metal like it had come straight from the fridge.

How, though? Mattie hadn’t put anything in her bag during the study session or… maybe she had, and she wasn’t paying attention. She didn’t know, and at that point she was so tired she didn’t really care. Soda was soda.

Anne cracked open the top, hearing the satisfying hiss of air followed by the fizzing of bubbles. She raised it in toast to her phone.

“To a good year in college.”

Then she drank.


	3. Chapter 3

Anne walked into the Magic 101 hall once again, and spotted Danny sitting closer to the front. He waved at her.

“Hey, you made it.” He gestured to the lecture hall, which was noticeably lighter in students compared to the first day. “I was wondering if you’d show up.”

“Yeah, I… I did.” Anne took a seat next to him. “You look nicer today… wait, I mean, I didn’t mean to imply-“

Danny chuckled. “Nah, I get it. I did put a bit more effort in today; threw on one of my nicer shirts. I even tried to give my beard a trim, but, uh, I’m pretty sure it grew back in the time I took to walk here. Sucks.”

Anne looked, and she really couldn’t notice the difference. “Yeah, it… it seems like it did.”

“It grows like a weed. But hey, at least I never have that awkward scruffy stage to deal with, so I guess that’s a plus.” He sat back in his chair. “Where’s Mattie- oh. Speak of the devil.”

Mattie came barreling through the doors, a stack of papers in hand, and Anne noticed she was wearing a different sweater. This one was covered in sequins, sparkling like a disco ball and scattering little dots of light wherever she went.

Danny raised his eyebrows as he approached. “That’s one hell of a sweater. Where’d you even get something like that?”

“I made it!” Mattie placed a hand on her stomach, and swiped downwards. “Look, the sequins change colour when you do this!”

“I see that. And you made it yourself?” Danny raised his eyebrows. “Now that’s impressive.”

“Yeah, that’s… really cool, Mattie!”

Mattie beamed. “Thank you, guys! That means a lot. And I like your shirt, Danny- Danny!”

“Yeah? I’m not that far away.”

“This is for you!” She shoved a pile of papers into his lap. “You were asking about wards and emotions yesterday, so here you go!”

Danny blinked. “Oh, thanks. Wait… who answered it?”

“My babysitter.”

“Your babysitter wrote this.”

“Yes.”

“Really.”

“He knows about wards and stuff.”

Danny straightened all the papers on his lap. “Yeah, I can tell. Well, you can tell him thanks from me, I guess. I’ll have to give this a read at some point.”

"No problem!” She pointed at the stage. “Oh, look, there’s Professor Brown! Do you think he’ll be better today?”

As they watched, Professor Brown cleared his throat. “If everyone could please quiet down…”

Danny rolled his eyes. “Nope. Same time, after school?”

“I’m in! Anne?”

Anne nodded. “Yeah, that-that sounds good.”

* * *

The first week of college came and passed, and every day the study group met in the library. They didn’t just try and catch up on Magic 101; ever since Mattie had tried to work out a math problem in front of Danny, he insisted on at least taking a look at her coursework. And then Mattie realized Danny didn’t actually know what the 2079 Splitting of Arizona entailed – what a gap in knowledge! – and insisted on returning the favour with history help. Anne then timidly offered her services in Science and English, and all of a sudden the hour of study turned into a veritable mish-mash of whatever subjects the three of them were struggling with at the time.

It was a very good hour, all things considered.

“So,” Mattie leaned back in her chair on their Monday study group. “What do you kids wanna be when you grow up?”

Anne raised an eyebrow. “What? We’re, um, we’re not kids. We’re- well, I’m eighteen. Are you…?”

“Yeah, I’m eighteen.” Danny smiled a little. “I know I look like I’m in my thirties, but that’s the truth.”

Mattie poked him on the shoulder. “Hey, it looks like we’re opposites! You look thirty, but you’re actually eighteen. I am thirty, but nobody believes me!” She picked some fuzz off her glittery pink sweater. “I’ve always wondered why. So anyway, what do you guys wanna be?”

“I was gonna start my own ward laying business.” Danny tapped away on his laptop. “Get a Bachelor’s in Practical Warding with a minor in Business. Then I’ll move to Jerome City; those guys always need ward layers to keep the ghosts out.”

“Oh, that’s so cool! You should name your business ‘Fear Feare, Fantoms’! Or ‘Feare Ain’t Afraid of No Ghosts’! Or, or ‘Gotta Catch ‘Em All Cuz He’s Danny F!”

Danny just stared at her for a long moment, then he burst out laughing. Anne stared in shock; it was a full, shoulders shaking, hand banging on the table laugh, a far cry from the occasional light chuckle he let out from time to time.

“You are…” Danny stopped to cackle a little more before he continued. “Do you just have coffee for blood or something? I don’t, I just… hahahaha! Fear Feare, Fantoms, that’s brilliant! I was just gonna slap on something shitty like ‘Danny’s Ward Laying’, but now I know who I’m going to for names!”

Mattie grinned. “I’m here all day.”

Danny continued trying to contain his laughter, so she turned to Anne. “Hey, what about you? What’s your plan?”

“Me? Um, I don’t really have much of… a plan.”

“You got any ideas?”

Anne shrank into her chair. “Um… well… I have, um, some ideas…”

“Let’s hear ‘em! Come on, Anne! Anne! Anne!”

“Well… I was thinking, um… demon _ noludjee _ …”

“Come again?”

She looked down. “Demonology? That’s, um, that’s what I was thinking.”

“Demonology?” Danny’s eyebrows raised in mild surprise. “Huh. I thought you were going into some sort of magic-science field.”

“Nope. I-I want to be a demonologist. Or do something with demonology.” She then noticed Mattie. “Um… are you okay?” 

Mattie’s eyes had widened until they looked ready to pop out of her skull. Then she clasped her hands together, and squealed. Next to her, Danny winced.

“Oh my gosh!” Mattie’s grin stretched ear to ear. “I’m taking demonology too!”

Both Danny and Anne said, “What?”

“That’s amazing! We’re gonna summon demons together! Demon buddies!”

Anne looked her up and down, from her sunny smile to her bright pink sweater. “You want to-to be a demonologist?”

“Heck yeah. Forensic demonology!”

Danny stared at her. “Wait, does that mean you summon demons to solve cases, or you solve cases about summoned demons?”

“Yes! I always wanted to be a detective, but…” She shrugged. “Well, it didn’t pan out. Until now! All I have to do is get my degree, and then I can start solving cases!”

Anne nodded. “That’s, um, really cool. I’m… I’m sorry it took so long.”

“What? Oh, don’t be. That was then. I live in the now!”

“Not a bad way to live.” Danny smiled. “Well, I guess I’m in a study group with two demonologists. Does that count as a cult?”

“Technically, um, no, and also my parents would… they’d kill me if-“

“You’re right! We’re totally a cult! The Cult of Study Buddies!”

Danny reached back and flicked his hood over his head.

* * *

  
In class the next morning, everyone was struggling to listen to Professor Brown introduce a new topic.

“And now we move to section three of the current, the current chapter, which we will be covering today and if you look at it, you will see it is titled, ‘The Mathematical Properties of Warding, A Basic Overview’. And now…”

Anne didn’t even have to look at Mattie to know she was slumping in her seat. Danny leaned over.

“What’s the matter?” He said with a teasing grin. “Don’t you like math?”

Mattie groaned. “I’m so sorry in advance for all the time it’s gonna take to explain this to me.”

“S’alright. Buy me a soda and we’ll be even.”

“Deal.”

Up ahead, Professor Brown had turned to the electronic board in front of him and started writing… things. Equations? It was hard to tell on account of his handwriting, which was as tiny as his voice was quiet.

“Beginning with W, which, um, stands for wards – we could do x, but this is what I’m doing, and I don’t much mind what letter you put on your assignments, as long as it’s consistent. Anyway, ahem, beginning with W - how to mathematically construct wards - we can run the parallel and perpendicular lines parallel and perpendicular to this expression, and with the Third Law of Wards, using some slanted lines to create triangles, here, and here, uh, this is basic trigonometry, right here, and…”

Danny’s eyes had been steadily widening as he watched the Professor ramble on. He scratched his head. “I don’t think this guy knows what he’s talking about.”

Anne nodded. “He sounds like he’s just stringing a bunch of math terms together and hoping it fits.”

A pause. Anne looked over to see Danny and Mattie were staring at her. “Uh… what? Did I, um, did I say something wrong?”

“No, no, I just didn’t know Anne had snark.” Mattie grinned. “You should do that more often.”

“Oh. Well, um… uh… I bet when this guy wrote his thesis, he just vomited a math textbook onto it, a-and turned it in.”

And Mattie  _ laughed _ . Anne stared at her, surprise turning to excitement. “Well, um, what else? Um…” She imitated the Professor’s voice. “You can see, um, trigonometry. Derivatives. Sine wave. Calculator. Let me write this down for all the mice watching in the front-“

There was a frantic tapping on her shoulder, and Mattie, trying to contain her laughter, was pointing towards the front. It was the Professor, who noticed her antics and started to say, ‘Excuse me? Excuse me?’ over and over in his whispery voice. Unfortunately, Anne was too busy mocking this very voice to notice him.

“Excuse me?”

Anne went red as a beetroot. “Um… um… y-yes?”

“Do you have a question about today’s material?”

She shrank back in her seat. “Uh… no…”

“In future, please try and pay attention to the lesson.”

“Yes, um… Sorry. Sorry.”

The Professor cleared his throat and continued with the lecture, leaving Anne to sit there mortified. Mattie took one look at her and shook her head.

“Hey, those were good.” She whispered, offering a high five. “You’re funny, Anne. You should tell jokes more often… just not in class.”


	4. Chapter 4

“Let’s see, news, news. Your aunt came over today, Annie. She was asking about you.”

“Oh, cool.”

“She asked how you were doing in college, and we said, ‘well, we don’t know, because all she says is that she’s doing fine!’ You really need to give us more news to share with the folks back home, Annie.”

“Well, um, nothing really interesting is happening.”

“I’m sure plenty of interesting things are happening if you’d bother to look!” Anne’s mother leaned towards the phone. “What about the small details? We want to know what’s going on with you, Annie! Everyone does; you’re in college! That’s so exciting!”

“Yes, and my sister-in-law especially so. You’re the first kid she’s known go to college.”

“Harry! That’s so rude!”

“It’s rude, but it’s true, isn’t it?”

Anne cringed, adjusting her phone so she could better see her parents. “You, um, mean my cousin, right? How’s he doing?”

“Oh, how’s he doing? You want me to pop that question to your aunt?” Her father rolled his eyes. “It was awkward enough when she asked, ‘Oh, how’s Anne doing?’ and we didn’t have anything to say. So no, I don’t know how he’s doing.”

“Oh. Um, sorry, I didn’t mean-”

“All I’m saying is, maybe if you bothered to tell us about your day, we’d be able to tell you how your cousin is doing. But you didn’t, so here we are.”

Anne knew that expression; it meant this conversation wasn’t going anywhere. She’d become rather familiar with it in the past week, and it was getting frustrating.

Her finger hovered over the red phone button. “Well, um, it was really nice talking to you… um, I have to-“

“Oh, look, there she goes. One week in college and she’s already brushing us off.”

“Harry…” Her mother shook her head. “Annie, can’t you give us just a little detail about your day? Please? It would make your father very happy if you did.”

Anne sighed. “I-um… I mean, you’ve been calling me everyday, nothing… nothing really interesting comes to mind-“

“What did you do after your classes, Annie? Are you still in that study group?”

“Y-yes, but we just did some studying-“

“Matilda and that Daniel, right? How are they?”

Her father rolled his eyes. “Ah, Mr..." He stuck two fingers out from his forehead to imitate horns. "That guy. This should be good.”

“Um… well, they – Mattie and Danny – they’re pretty good. We…” Anne stopped; probably best not to mention Mattie had gone and bought them little book necklaces for the ‘Cult of Study Buddies’. “We… um… um…”

“Annie, stop stammering like that.” Her father snapped. “I hate it when you do that.”

“I… um… we d-di… we… did… math?”

“Ah.” Her father drew back from the camera, stroking his chin. With the air of a seasoned detective putting the pieces of some grand puzzle together, he declared, “I think you’re lying to me, Anne Chante.”

Anne groaned. She hated it when he accused her of lying. She hated it even more on the off chance he was right. “Dad, I-“

He raised his voice. “What did I say to you before you went off to college? What did I say?”

She shrank back. “Um-“

“Annie, I was very clear that you were not to lie to me! That was my one rule. I let you go off and take this damn demonology course you’ve got your heart set on, and all I wanted was for you not to lie to me! I just want to keep you safe, but I don’t know. Seems more and more to me like you don’t care! You’d rather go dawdling around in your little fantasy world – oh, look at me, I’m Anne, I’m an _ adult _ now, wee! – and you get yourself in trouble, then you have the nerve to come back and lie to my face! To my face, Annie! What do you have to say for yourself?”

Blinking back tears, Anne said nothing. Her mother stayed silent, expressionless, eyes flitting between the two.

“What do you have to say for yourself? Huh?” He banged his fist on the counter, and she jumped. “I’m-! I’m just trying to look out for you, Annie. I’m just trying to look out for you! But you insist on taking dangerous classes and lying to me and… Why do you do this to me? You know I couldn’t stand it if something happened to you again.”

“I’m not…” Anne gritted her teeth. “I-I I didn’t do that t-to make you upset-”

“Oh, you did-did-didn’t mean to make me upset? Well let me tell you, Annie-“

Anne hit the red phone button. She didn’t know what set her off – maybe it was the sound of her father’s voice raising up again, or her mother looking away with resignation, or that little bit of frustration about having the same tired old argument for an entire week briefly bubbling over her fears - but she did hit it, and as soon as their faces disappeared off the screen, she was filled with ice-cold regret. She shouldn’t have done that.

She shouldn’t have done that.

The phone started to ring again. She stared at it. She should pick it up.

It vibrated on the table. She should really pick it up. They’d be furious with her if she let it ring.

She let it ring. Sure, they’d be shouting at her for hanging up, but if she let it go to voicemail…

She let it go to voicemail. This was bad. She should call them back. Just call them back, and let them shout at her, say the right things, and nothing too bad would happen. He wouldn’t do something crazy, like take away her college funds or something. Could he do that? He could probably do that. She should call him back and stop him from doing that…

But oh my god, if there was ever something Anne didn’t want to do in her life, it was to touch that phone; the feeling of ‘I don’t want to do this’ pressed down like a physical weight on her arms. Her cheeks were flushed, and she probably looked like a mess from crying because she was so, so tired and so, so angry. She was done. She wasn’t having another stupid argument with her parents, not tonight.

The phone started to ring again, and she sighed, and she stood up, and she walked out of the door.

She needed some air.

* * *

Anne woke up to the sound of her alarm. She groaned and rolled over, then stretched. She checked the time - ten AM - and groaned again. She woke up so late now compared to school; why did it somehow feel even more tiring?

As she checked her phone, she noticed she had seventeen missed calls from her parents and two texts. She cringed. Did she really hang up on them last night? She shouldn’t have done that; that was mean. They were probably worried sick about her. She should call them back.

Her finger hovered over their number, but then she noticed something strange.

Those two texts, they weren’t from her parents. They were from Mattie (Mattie Study Buddy, History Master of the Cult of Study Buddies, her name now read), and the first one was sent at three o’clock in the morning.

_ Hey, can you please stop shoving candy wrappers under the couch? You’re a big ol’ scary demon, you of all people should be able to put it in the trash! I believe in you! _

Five minutes later, she texted,

_ Haha and by that I meant candy wrappers under the couch is bad! You should always put them in the trash! That’s a life pro tip right there. Also, I’m bringing candy to today’s lecture! Yaaaaay candy! _

Anne shook her head at the text messages. Demon? Candy wrappers? She couldn’t make sense of it, so she closed her phone, got ready for the day and headed out the door for Magic 101.

Like most days, Danny was already sitting in his seat when Anne arrived. Unlike most days, he looked – for lack of a better term – absolutely _ pissed _. His brows were furrowed and he was leaning forwards, giving his face a shadow that, combined with his downturned lips and ruddy complexion, made him seem downright ominous. He was furiously tapping away at his phone, mouthing, ‘Are you serious’ over and over again, and didn’t even acknowledge Anne’s presence when she sat next to him.

Unsure of what to do, Anne didn’t acknowledge him, either. She tried not to stare at him as she unpacked her stuff, and breathed a sigh of relief when she caught sight of Mattie coming up the steps. She was good with people, she knew what to do.

“Hey, Danny! Hey, Anne! Heyyy, Anne…” Mattie dropped a bag of candy on her lap. “So about that text, did’ja find it funny? Demons, haha! ‘Cuz we’re pretending to be in a cult! I’m a riot, aren’t I? Anyway, here’s that candy. Don’t put it under the couch! Hahahaha!”

Anne slowly nodded. “Um… sure. Thanks.”

“No problem!”

The two of them stared at each other for a second. Anne motioned her head towards Danny, and Mattie raised an eyebrow, looking confused. She motioned a little more, and Mattie finally noticed his angry expression. She nodded thoughtfully and raised her hand to Anne like she was saying, ‘I got this.’

“So what’s with the long face, Danny-o?”

Anne facepalmed.

“What?” Danny glanced up at Mattie, and sighed. “Oh, hey. Don’t worry about, it’s nothing.”

“Nothing? Danny, you look like you’re about to murder somebody, and not in the good way.”

“I’m just a little frustrated, that’s all.”

She put a hand on his shoulder. “Frustrated about what? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” He shrugged off her hand. “Really, I am. You don’t need to give me that look. I’m just wrapped up in a little bit of a bureaucratic clusterfuck at the moment.”

“A bureaucratic what now?”

“A bureaucratic clusterfuck.”

“That’s what I thought. Hey, there’s the Danny I know!”

Danny chuckled a little bit, before returning to his phone. “Yeah… It kinda sucks, though.”

“Do you wanna maybe talk about it?”

He made a face.

“It’s okay if you don’t.” She sat down next to him. “But any time you need to talk, vent, sing, scream, yodel, whatever, you can always come to me, okay?”

He snorted. “Yeah, I really need to yodel out my problems to a friendly ear.”

“Hey, I don’t know what you do! But seriously. I’m your one stop shop for friendly ears and shoulders to cry on! You won’t believe the low, low price of – well, there is no price! Can you believe that? Going once, going twice-”

“Alright, alright, I’ll think about it.”

“Sold! To the gentleman with the lovely smile sitting next to me.”

Danny shook his head. “You are… I don’t even know what you are. Thanks, Mattie.”

“No problem,” Mattie turned back to Anne with a winning smile and snagged a piece of candy. Anne was too impressed to care. “No problem.”

* * *

During the lecture, Anne’s phone buzzed. She checked to see who it was from; as soon as she saw it was from her parents, she sighed.

_ Call us, please. We love you. _

She couldn’t keep hiding from them forever. It wasn’t fair to them; she was acting selfish.

“Everything okay over there?” Mattie whispered. “Hey, if it’s about those texts-“

She stood up abruptly. “I-I need to, to make a call.”

Professor Brown didn’t seem to notice her as she hurried towards the exit. Once outside, she took a deep breath and called her parents.

They answered on the first ring.

“Annie!” That was her mother’s voice. “Oh, it’s so good to hear from you.”

“Hi… Hi, mom. Um…” She braced herself. “Where’s, um, where’s Dad?”

“Oh, he’s out. You know how busy he is.”

“Yeah…”

A silence hung between them. Anne didn’t know what to say; she was rather caught off guard by how non-shouty it had been so far.

“So…”

“Annie,” Her mother’s voice sounded a little tense. “So, last night. Haha, wow, that… that got a little heated between you two, didn’t it? A little out of hand?”

“Yeah. It did.”

“I know your father, he can get a little… loud, but it’s because he cares so much, Annie. He loves you so much, he doesn’t want to see you hurt. You understand that, don’t you?”

Anne made a face. “Yeah. I love him too, I-I love you both.”

“I know you do. You’ve just… well, you’re our little girl, and you’re growing up so fast! You’re going into college and… it’s a hard adjustment for him.” Her voice picked up as she continued. “But you know what? I think the whole, ‘talking through the phone’ thing isn’t helping, so I think we should go out for a nice lunch! I saw a little sandwich place not far from your college. How about after your classes today, the three of us meet up, put this whole thing behind us and catch up properly? And afterwards, you can show us around! It’ll be fun!”

“Um… I have a study group, um, at that time-”

“Annie, you have a study group after class every day. Please, your father and I are really rather busy, and it is a little bit of a drive…” She trailed off, and silence hung expectantly between them. “Annie? Are you there?”

“I’m here! Um, okay. I-I’ll be there.”

“Fantastic! You’re a good girl, Annie. We can’t wait to see you later! I love you!”

“I love you too, Mom.” She clicked off, and was left standing outside the lecture hall. She… didn’t know what to think of this. It was good – really good, in fact – but…

She shook herself. What was she even complaining about? They weren’t mad, and they were going for lunch that afternoon. It was fine. Everything was fine.

And also, she had to get back to class.

Anne quietly slipped back into her seat. She noticed Mattie giving her that same look of friendly concern she’d given Danny.

Before Mattie could give her a similar talk, she decided to speak first. “Parents.”

“Ah.” Mattie nodded thoughtfully. “I’ve had 'em, and I’ve been 'em. What’s up?”

Anne cringed; maybe she shouldn’t complain about parents to an actual parent. “Oh… uh, they, um, just wanted to talk to me. That’s all.”

“In the middle of a lecture? Don’t they know your schedule?”

“Uh… yeah. They do, actually.” She remembered something. “Oh! Um, also, I can’t go to the study group today. I’m sorry. Something… something came up.”

"That’s alright. I was actually going over to Danny’s dorm after class; gonna get him to open up and talk about his feelings!”

“I can hear you, you know.” Danny looked over at Anne. “You’re not coming?”

Go over to Danny’s dorm room? “No… um… I’m not allowed to.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Not allowed to?”

“Yeah… um, something came up, too-“

“You know, you can just say no if you don’t want to come.”

“Um, I… well… yeah. I mean, no, um, no. Sorry.”

“Oh, alright then. See you around, I guess.”

Danny turned back to the lecture, and Anne looked away, face burning. ‘I can’t come, I have lunch with my parents’; is that really so hard to say? Why did she have to make that so awkward? Why did she make everything so awkward?

She was interrupted by a rustle of plastic at her feet. Mattie was digging around in the giant bag of candy she’d bought in; she picked a piece, and offered it to Anne.

“You want one? I’ve had way too many while you were out in the hall. I’m gonna be jumping off the walls at this rate!”

Anne smiled a little, and took it. “Thanks, Mattie.”


	5. Chapter 5

_ How’s Danny? _

Sitting in ‘The Stumbling Pegasus’ – which was less ‘a little sandwich place’ and more ‘a bar which also sold sandwiches’ – Anne sent off a text to Mattie. She checked the time; just about when the study group was supposed to start.

She sighed, and turned off her phone. There were magi-screens set up around the central bar counter, showing some Flaming Footsoccer match. She didn’t really care about the games – you see some people kick an ice ball around a burning field for a few hours, and that’s it – but with her parents still a little while out and nothing else to do, she watched it.

It was alright. The blue guys scored once… or at least she thought they did. She didn’t really understand the rules, and plus, the camera had a really hard time capturing a game that took place on a literal field of fire; she’d been told watching in the stadium was way better. After a little while she turned back to take a sip of her water and-

“Anne!”

Anne sat up. Her parents?

“Anne! Look, it’s Anne! Hello! Hello, Anne!”

She turned towards the sound, and saw a little kid waving at her whilst being frantically shushed by some man. Once she’d noticed them, the man sprang back up and grinned at her.

“Hello. Nice to see you!” He straightened a bowtie on his unusually formal suit. “Wasn’t meaning to disturb you, but it seems Rebecca here had other plans.”

Did she… know these people?

“Hi, Anne!” The kid charged up to her and jumped on her lap. Surprised, Anne wrapped an arm around her before she fell off. “Do you like your necklace? I picked it out, and it has a book because you like reading! Mom said that you like reading.”

Wait. Dark hair. Bright purple sweater. Loud voice. She did know who this was.

“You’re, um, Mattie’s kid, aren’t you?”

“Yeah! Do you like the necklace?”

“Oh! Um, yes, I do! Thank you, it’s, um, very nice!” She turned to the man. “So, you must be-“

“Mattie’s brother.” He smiled at her a little too widely. “Tyrone Pines. It’s good to see you, Anne.”

Mattie had a brother? Now that he mentioned it, she could see the resemblance in their brown hair, in their face and nose shape, in their equally interesting choices of clothing. That would explain why he still looked so strangely familiar.

“It’s nice to meet you too. So, um…” Anne looked down; Rebecca was still sitting on her lap, fiddling with her shirt collar, and she didn’t really know what to do about it.

Tyrone seemed to notice this. “You look like you’re busy. I get it. We should be heading home, anyways. Rebecca, please get off Anne’s lap. Come over here, hold my hand.”

“Okay, Uncle Ally!” She slid off Anne’s lap and went over to take his hand. As they were walking out the door, Anne heard her saying, “I was trying to find my necklace. I wanted to see it again…”

Anne watched them go. Well, that was interesting. She checked her phone again to see if Mattie had said anything yet, but there was nothing.

So she sat, and she waited.

* * *

Ten minutes later, and things were beginning to pick up at the Stumbling Pegasus. A loud group of students had sat behind Anne, and she moved to another table. The waitress (who she was pretty sure was in her English class) came and refilled her water. Mattie still hadn’t responded.

Ten minutes later, and she heard the chime on the front door start to ring as it opened. Ten minutes later, and her parents arrived. They stood at the front, looking around until she got up and waved them over.

“Hi, Mom!” Anne put on her best smile. “Hi Dad.”

Fortunately, her father didn’t seem all that upset about last night. On the contrary, he seemed rather happy as he noticed her. “There’s our girl. Annie! Come here.”

He wrapped her in a tight hug, and then let go.

“Hi, Annie.” Her mother gave her a light, one-armed hug, and kept her hand on Anne’s shoulder as they pulled away. “Oh, it’s so nice to see you. I hope you weren’t waiting too long.”

“No, it’s fine. It’s nice to see you too.” Annie led them over to the table. “So, um, how are you guys?”

“So this is the ‘little sandwich place’ you were talking about?” Her father chuckled at Mrs Chante. “Seems, heh, seems you and I have very different definitions for what a sandwich place is.”

“Well, dear, the website gave me a very different impression of this restaurant.”

“The website? All you’ve gotta do is look at the name. Who goes to a place called ‘The Stumbling Pegasus’ for their sandwiches?”

She picked up the wine list. “Well, that was an honest mistake, then.”

“Honest mistake? Sure, let’s go with that.”

Anne suddenly cut into the conversation. “Well, it’s so nice to see you guys here! I was, um, looking through the menu here-“

“It’s a very short menu, isn’t it, Jenny?”

“Anyway! Um, well…” She cleared her throat. “So college has been good. College algebra has been pretty easy, actually.”

Her father finally turned to her. “Ah, that’s good to hear. Straight A’s?”

“Lots of A’s, yeah. I-I mean, I’m not below a C in anything - Magic 101 is kind of challenging – but yeah! It’s going well.”

Her father nodded. “That’s good to hear, Annie, good to hear…” He straightened in his seat, and folded his hands over the table. “Now, Annie…“

Anne cringed. This was the moment.

“This is very nice and all, but we really do have to address the events of yesterday.”

“Yes, Dad, I know. I’m sorry-“

“Ah, ah, ah! Let me finish.” He took a deep breath. “The events of yesterday, in which you hung up on me. You understand that’s unacceptable, don’t you?”

“I know. It won’t happen again, everything just got a little heated-“

“And that’s when you use your words. Talk things out like an adult, you know?” He shook his head. “I won’t go on about it, but I just want you to understand that you can’t do that again. I’m not, I don’t know, your best friend, and they’re shouting at you about your cheating boyfriend or whatever, and you hang up. No, no. I’m not your best friend, okay? I’m your dad, and when you’re a dad, you’ve got to make choices for your daughter, and, and sometimes those choices might not be popular with your daughter, but they keep her safe, and that means you’re a good dad. And that means you can’t shut me out. I need to know everything, so I can make those choices. Do you understand?”

Her mother rolled her eyes. “Harry, you’re rambling again.”

“Rambling, am I? Well, Annie, do you understand?”

“I know, Dad. I-I understand.”

“See? She understands. I’m not a rambler.” He cleared his throat. “Anyway, you know we’re just looking out for you, right? We’ve always been looking out for you, especially since, well, back when you were a little kid…”

Anne shrank back as she saw her father’s eyes watering. “I know, Dad, I’m sorry, you don’t have to mention it. I know you don’t like-”

“Well, ever since that day when you were kid…” He made a big show of picking a napkin up and blowing on it. “Kidnapped, and those cultists, those Bloody Dreamers, and I thought I’d never see you again… I swore, I’d keep you safe. You know, it was easy when you were so little, but as you get older… I worry, Annie. I worry so much… I do, I worry so, so much…”

Her mother patted him on the back. “There, there, Harry. Why don’t you look at the wine list?”

It was at that moment the waitress came over. “Hey, guys! Are you ready to…?”

A tomato would have paled next to Anne as she watched the waitress take in the scene, trail off, and look away discreetly. Yep, that was definitely someone from her English class. Someone she could never look in the eyes again.

“I’ll give you three a few minutes, okay?”

“No, no,” Her mother waved her back. “What’s this Asgarnian Ale? I think I’ll have some of that, no ice. Harry?”

Mr Chante didn’t respond.

“He’ll have the same as me. Annie?”

Anne blinked. “Um… I’d like… a sandwich?”

* * *

Fortunately, things improved from there (though Anne hardly imagined how they could have gotten worse), and once her father regained his composure, he asked about her day. Anne had prepared for this, and she answered him with fairly inoffensive anecdotes. She wrote an essay in English. She saw a hummingbird. She did well in a test. The next half hour was filled with small talk, and soon enough, she saw her parents start to check the time and rustle in their bags.

“Are you guys leaving?”

“Yes, unfortunately.” Her mother made a face. “We’re so sorry, but time really flew away from us – that means we’re having fun, right? Ah, well. Maybe we should do this more often.”

Anne had the sudden image of meeting with her parents every day after class. “Um, I don’t know if… I mean, maybe just for special occasions?”

“Yes, I think Annie has a point.” Her father shook his head. “It’s a nice thought, but all the travelling back and forth? No way. You’re jumping the gun a bit there, honey.”

“Oh, well, still. We should do this again sometime, it was fun!” Anne’s mother gave her a hug. “Bye, honey. We love you.”

“I love you too.”

“Bye, Annie.” Her father stuck his finger at her. “Remember what we talked about, okay?”

“I will.”

“Good. You do that, and you won’t have any trouble from me.” He ruffled her hair. “We’re proud of you, Annie. Keep up the good work.”

Anne smiled. “I will, Dad.”

They waved her goodbye, and she sat there for a while, that smile still on her face. Sure, they were a little overbearing sometimes, but at the end of the day, they were her parents, and they loved her, no matter how many mistakes she made. That was what family was for, right?

The bar had been getting steadily louder as time went on, filling up with groups of college students laughing and shouting and grating on her ears. She should probably leave soon, but she wanted to check her phone first; she’d felt it buzz while she was talking with her parents.

It was from Mattie, ten minutes ago, and this was what she said:

_ He doesn’t know it yet, but I fixed everything :) How are your folks? _

That sounded encouraging. She texted back a reply.

_ That’s good! My parents were good too, it was nice to talk to them. _ She then remembered the meeting with Tyrone and Rebecca, and added: _ Oh, and I also saw your brother and your daughter today. It was cool to meet them! _

Anne sent it off, pocketed her phone, stood up, and started walking home. The sun had set, but it was only a short walk, and the street was still busy and bright. She felt good; things seemed like they were going pretty well, actually.

Then her phone rang. Anne fished it out and answered it.

“Mattie?”

“Hey, there, Anne!” Maybe it was the sounds of driving in the background, but Mattie sounded a little more strained than usual. “Um, I got your text, about my kid and my… brother? Wha, haha, what are you talking about?”

“Well, yeah, I-I saw them today.”

“Rebecca?”

“Yeah, Rebecca and Tyrone.”

“Tyrone?”

Anne was caught off guard. “…Yeah. Your brother?”

“Anne, I have one sister I haven’t seen in ten years. I don’t know who you’re talking about.” A pause, and then, quietly, “Please tell me you’re joking.”

“No, I’m not.” Anne stopped dead, and the gravity of the situation came down on her like an icy shower. “Um, oh my god, I-I saw them walking down the street, they said they were going home, but I didn’t see… Um…” She racked her brain. “He had tall – he was brown hair, and this, this – suit! – yes, he had a suit, and a bow, and-“

“He had a suit?” Mattie interrupted. “Wait. Did my kid call him Uncle Ally?”

“Um… I think I remember that?”

“Oh, then that’s fine!” Her tone snapped back to her usual chipperness, which gave Anne whiplash as she tried to calm her beating heart. “False alarm! Haha, don’t worry about it. I was being silly. Happens all the time – I mean, you already know that, don’t you? Hahaha, everything’s fine. He’s, um, definitely my brother.”

“Wait.” Anne raised an eyebrow. “Then why didn’t you mention him?”

“I guess I forgot. Haha, so anyways-“

“You forgot you had a brother?”

“…Yeah.” Mattie said, after a pause. “He’s, you know, an… an in-law! Brother-in-law, yeah! So anyways, I’m sure Rebecca was thrilled to meet you. She’s always asking about you guys! I hope she wasn’t too rambuntus - rambunctuus? Ram- rambunctious! Yeah! Anyway, I’ll see you in class tomorrow. Okay? Okay! A-bye bye!”

Mattie clicked off, and Anne was left standing in the street, confused. Now Anne would freely admit that she was a little naïve, and lies would generally fly straight over her head. But was she naïve enough to believe Mattie had genuinely forgotten she had a brother-in-law?

No. No, she was not. Mattie was lying about something.

The question was, why? And what was she going to do about it?

Her heart still thumping from adrenaline, Anne kept walking home, frowning as she thought and thinking as she frowned.

* * *

Another day. Anne groaned and stretched, then settled back into her bed. How did she ever wake up earlier back in highschool?

Then she checked her phone, and saw one text from her mother. It was a news link to some sort of demonic massacre, followed by several exclamation points. She gave it a quick scan; eleven dead, Marks of Alcor found, possible links to the Bloody Dreamers, an extreme branch of the Circle of the Dreamer’s Star. Anne shuddered; those guys were still around, apparently. Great.

She texted back some platitudes for her parents, who were clearly freaking out, and then checked the time. It was a little later than she’d like, but she could still easily make it to class.

Anne got out of bed and dressed for the day, then headed out the door. She was still yawning as she entered the lecture hall, and saw Danny sitting in his usual place. As she sat down next to him, she wondered when he usually arrived. He must live really close.

“Hey, Anne.” He waved at her as she sat next to him, looking far happier than he did yesterday. Oh, right, Mattie said something about that.

Oh, right, Mattie.

“Hi, Danny. You look, um, good.”

“Yeah, I feel good. How are you?”

“I’m, I’m good. Yeah, doing great.”

He snorted. “I can never tell if you’re being sarcastic.”

“What? Why not?”

“Your voice jumps an octave every time I say something to you.”

“What?” She said, squeakily. “No, it doesn’t!”

He chuckled a little, then trailed off. A silence settled between them as Anne took out her notes. She spotted her professor walking up to the stand, and checked her time. Huh, it was later than she expected.

“Hey, isn’t Mattie supposed to be here by now?”

Anne blinked. “Yes… she is.”

“I’m gonna- oh, speak of the devil. There she is.”

One solitary figure in a bright blue sweater burst through the doors and legged it up the stairs just as Professor Brown cleared his throat. Mattie flashed them a quick smile as she sat down, and ran a hand through her messy hair.

“Hey, Mattie.” Danny raised an eyebrow. “You okay?”

“What? Oh, I’m fine, I’m fine. I’m great, actually! Just a little tired, that’s all.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah! I’m, um, riding the unicorn of… happiness? Riding the… the… Oh, I don’t know. There was a joke there somewhere.” She sighed and kneaded her forehead. “Sorry guys, I’m not really feeling it today.”

“Hey, don’t worry about it.” Danny put a hand on her shoulder. “Take it easy, okay?”

“Thanks, Danny. Hey, um, don’t you worry. The… the Mattie show will be back on schedule by tomorrow at the latest! Yeah…”

Anne had some questions she’d been waiting to ask Mattie, but seeing her take out her notes, pause, and stare at them with a faraway expression, she decided it could wait.


	6. Chapter 6

“And _w_ over Mage’s Number and the negative hypotenuse, times the square root of negative two divided by zero.” Professor Brown finished scribbling out a long equation, and dotted the end for emphasis. “That is, that is the exact Mindscapular placement of the ward for maximum effectiveness. Very important, historically important formula, but it took a long time to memorise, let me tell you.”

Danny raised his hand. “Is this the equation ward layers use when working on houses?”

“What? Oh, no, this, this is all purely theoretical; there are, um, some equations that ward layers - but they’re much less precise - use, but they generally don’t deal with Mindscapular theory or impossible magicks, and there are – and this isn’t my field, so I can’t explain – I think, debates between the effectiveness of different equations, so we won’t be going into them.” He nodded at his calculations. “I find impossible magicks so fascinating, though. If you’re interested – interested at all – in this subject, I do highly recommend you take the advanced course next year. Right now, we’re covering how conservation of mass interacts with planes of existence like Mindscape that are in fact massless, and relevant schools of thought.”

Before he had even finished, Danny’s eyes had glazed over. He sat back, arms crossed, and muttered, “I think I’ll pass.”

Professor Brown checked his watch. “And I think we are at the end of the lecture. We’re moving away from wards tomorrow, and starting a short section on proper spellcasting techniques. That’s all, thank you.”

People all around started to get up and shamble towards the exits. Danny stretched his legs, and stood up. “Welp, that was bad. Informative, but bad.”

Mattie smiled wanly. “Like somebody throwing a textbook at your head.”

“I mean, pretty much. You guys on for the study group? Anne?”

Anne nodded. “Yeah! That, um, that sounds good.”

“Mattie?”

She looked up.

“What? Pfft, of course! An hour with the best study buddies ever? Wouldn’t miss it for the world!”

“I figured you were going to say that. See you later, Matts. Take care, okay?”

He gave her a long hug. Anne blinked, then stepped forwards, raising her arms. Danny stared at her blankly before it clicked.

“Oh, you want a hug too? Alright.”

They shuffled over to each other. Danny was as rigid as street light. Anne barely touched him. This was a mistake. It was going on too long. Oh god, she made this so awkward-

“Danny sandwich!” Mattie tackled him, and he stumbled into Anne. Mattie giggled. “What, you think I wasn’t gonna join in or something? You thought wrong!”

“Alright, alright, get off me! I’m gonna crush Anne.”

“Please don’t crush me.”

“It’s an Anne pancake too! We’ve got a full friend breakfast over here!”

“Oh god.”

“Hah!” Mattie skipped back. “You guys cheer me right up. Anyway, I gotta go. Seeya later!”

There was a skip in her step again as she walked down the stairs. Anne picked up her bag and glanced at Danny. He gave her a sort of half wave.

“See you later.”

“Yeah, um…” Anne trailed off, waved back, and then ducked her head and walked away. Oh, god, that was awkward.

* * *

_ Saturday. Ten o’clock. Horkit’s down by the mall. Don’t be late, or else! _

Anne raised her eyebrows. Across the table, she could see Danny adopt the same expression.

“You want to go to the movies? What are we watching?” He frowned at Mattie. “Also, why did you text us? We’re right next to you.”

“You guys looked like you were real focused. I didn’t want to disturb you.”

“Nice job with that.”

She snorted. “Yeah, I kinda suck not disturbing people. It’s a struggle. Anywaaaay, who’d like to go and see _ Wendinator: Ultimate Virus _?”

“Really? _ Wendinator _?” 

“What?”

Danny smirked. “I’m just surprised. I didn’t peg you as a _ Wendinator _ fan... no, second thoughts, that’s totally something you’d love.”

“I think they’re hilarious!” She turned to Anne. “What about you? C’mon, I bet you wanna see how she beats Al-V and stops him from erasing the Transcendence this time!”

“Um… I haven’t seen the first movie.”

“Oh, don’t worry. They’re all the same plot – bit of time travel, bunch of action, lots of cool explosions, a ‘My axe’ll be back’ thrown in here and there and boom! Two hours of fun, and I’ll buy you popcorn! You in?”

“Yeah. Sure. That sounds good!”

“I’ll try to make it.” Danny leaned forwards. “It’s gonna be a bit early for me.”

“No pressure. I just already bought the tickets, and – hah – there’s a funny story behind that.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah! Rebecca threw up twice last night, soooo I can’t take her. That’s the story.”

“Oh.” Anne pulled a face. “Is she okay?”

“She’s just sick. It happens.” She waved her hand. “She might even be happier at home – a whole ‘nother day with her babysitter all to herself! Hah!”

Mattie chuckled to herself, and looked back down at the page. Danny started tapping on his laptop again. It seemed everyone was settling back into the study group.

Anne took a deep breath. “Your babysitter?” She asked. “Y-your brother-in-law?”

Mattie blinked. “Huh? Oh, yeah. My brother-in-law; he’s a great guy. Rebecca loves him.”

She flipped another page. Across the table, Anne could see Danny frown.

“Wait, is your brother-in-law the same guy who sent me all that stuff about warding?”

“Uhhh… yes. He’s very smart, too. Smarter than me, right!”

“Awesome. Does he, like, work in the warding business, or-?”

“Hey, look at that!” Mattie stood up abruptly. “I’ve got a text! Oh, it’s from my babysitter, who is also my brother-in-law. Oop, looks like it’s not going well with Rebecca. Gotta go.”

“Hope she feels better, Mattie.”

“Thanks, Danny. See you guys Friday!”

“Saturday,” Danny said.

“Right. See you Friday, see you Saturday. Bye!”

Mattie rushed out of the library. Once she was gone, Anne leaned forwards.

“Her phone didn’t buzz.”

Danny looked up at her from the top of his laptop. “Hmm?”

“When she was picking it up. Her phone. It didn’t buzz.”

“…Okay?”

“I-I mean, if it didn’t buzz… she, she didn’t get a message, then.”

His eyebrows knitted together. “I don’t know where you’re going with this.”

“Well-“

“And to be honest, I don’t really want to hear it, either.” His eyes disappeared behind the laptop again. “She’s got a different sort of phone or something. Why do you care so much?”

Anne shrank back down. “It’s just… nevermind. Nevermind.”

* * *

SASU was a huge campus. Anne lived relatively close to the library, but it was still a bit of a walk. Every day she’d pass so many pretty sights; the green gardens, the towering reddish buildings, the honors college floating above her head with its flags fluttering in the breeze… it was a pretty walk.

She didn’t notice it so much as the weeks went by, but today she just took it all in. The grass was so green, she saw, and there were students hanging out under the trees reading from their magi-orbs. Anne almost wanted to join them, but it was still a little too hot out for her. She gave it one last glance as she wandered away.

Down the path, past so many groups of students. She could hear their chatter, laughing with all the friends they had. She felt it in her chest when she listened to how easy their conversations were, how well they got along with each other.

I mean, she had friends, right? Mattie and Danny… they counted, right? Even though… she made things awkward. Even though Danny didn’t seem to like her… well, Mattie liked her, right?

Mattie seemed to like everyone, though. She could have sat next to any two people in the lecture hall – it was pure chance, pure dumb luck she sat next to Anne. Maybe Mattie thought about that, too.

Maybe she wished she’d chosen her seat a bit better.

Anne gripped her books close to her chest. The sun felt that bit hotter against her back. The tall buildings now seemed to press down on all sides, and the students glared at her in passing – their laughs turned mocking, their conversations became gossip. She hunched her shoulders, but she still heard it. She still _ knew _ it.

She couldn’t take this anymore. She pulled out her phone.

_ Can’t make it to the movie, _ she texted. _ Sorry. Have fun_.

Anne sent it off, and sighed. They didn’t want her there anyway. It was for the best, right?

She asked herself this all the way home.


	7. Chapter 7

Anne overslept that morning. She groaned and grappled for her alarm, squinting at the time… and then her eyes went wide. She shot out of bed and stumbled towards the closet to throw something on. Shirt, jeans - drag a comb through the hair – okay, go!

Bag. Okay, now go.

She rushed out of the room, down the stairs, out of the building. She’d already missed the first half of class, but damn it if she wasn’t missing any more!

Into the building. Up to the door. One deep breath. Anne pushed it open as quietly as she could manage. Professor Brown was already mid-lecture; he didn’t notice her, but a few rows up, she could see Mattie give her a huge, two-handed wave. Danny wasn't there and she was sitting next to somebody else - that somebody shied away before they got hit by her arms.

“Hey!” Mattie tried to whisper as she got a little closer. “I thought you were dead!”

Anne laughed. “No. Not dead yet.”

“Hah! What happened? You overslept or something?”

“Yeah, uh… yeah.” She sat down, and eyed the person sitting next to Mattie. “Who’s she?”

“Eh? Oh, since none of you sad sacks turned up for the lecture I decided to meet the neighbors. This is my new friend… what’s your name again?”

The person was not-so-subtly shielding her face with her textbook. “Shhhh, I’m trying to pay attention.”

“Hi ‘trying to pay attention’, I’m dad! Hah! Yeah…” Mattie’s laugh died away, and she sat back. “Well, I’d say you could copy my notes, but we haven’t really started spellcasting yet. Brown went on some long tangent about a vacation with his wife in Hawaii, and now he’s plugging impossible magicks again. You haven’t missed much, trust me.”

“Oh… That’s not great.”

“Yeah, I’ve been slowly dying of boredom.” She grinned at Anne. “Wanna go over this unit in the library? I’ll bring soda.”

Anne smiled back. “That sounds good. Same, um, time?”

“Nah, I was thinking more like one in the morning… joking! Haha, yeah, same time.”

* * *

“This feels like it’d work better as more of a practical course.”

Staring down at the illustrations of literal stick figures going through different spellcasting stances, Anne couldn’t help but agree.

“I mean, there’s gotta be at least some sort of demonstration, right?” Mattie snorted. “’Cause these are just plain confusing. Like reading IKENA instructions.”

“I kind of like IKENA instructions.”

“I’ll keep that in mind the next time I got a chair or a toaster to put together or something.”

“Heh. Wait, a toaster-?”

“Maybe there’s a video!” Mattie picked up her laptop and started typing. “C’mon, internet, don’t fail me now!”

Anne hung by her shoulder as she searched for a spellcasting demonstration. Her laptop, as Anne had come to expect from most of her possessions, was covered in stickers. Glitter was piled on and between the keys, and there were photos taped on either side of the touchpad.

One was of Mattie, a baby she assumed was Rebecca, and that brother-in-law of hers. He was holding Rebecca in the stiffest, most nervous position possible, shooting a freaked out look at Mattie. Mattie was laughing her head off.

The other photo? It was of a man she didn’t recognize. He had reddish hair and a smattering of freckles across his face. He was posed behind a doorway, giving the camera a wry smile as he rested his forehead against the top of it.

“That’s Hunter.” Mattie said, and Anne jumped out of her skin. “He was my – well, ‘boyfriend’ is a dumb term. We were together for almost six years.”

“Oh. He looks nice.”

“Yeah, he was.”

‘Was.’ Ah. That hung in the air for a moment as Anne grappled for something to say.

“…Sorry.”

“Sorry for what? You’re alright. Hey, you wanna see a great picture of him?” She clicked back to her desktop, where there was a photo of Hunter in the clutches of… a dragon? A big black dragon with twisted horns and teeth the size of his head, bared at him in a toothy grin.

Anne sucked in a breath, but wait- was Mattie riding the dragon? And Hunter had his arms crossed; he looked more bored or frustrated than terrified for his life. She frowned.

“Wait, what is this?”

“It’s from the dragon colony up in the Sierra Nevada.” Mattie chuckled. “We went there for our gap year, which sorta turned into a gap more-than-a-year. It was really fun. The dragon we were staying with was such a prankster – this is how she used to get us up in the mornings. Good ol’ Xuantaenasher.”

“Su-ant-ay-“

“Xuantaenasher. The Destroyer.” She snorted. “Destroyer of ear drums, more like!”

“Whoa.” Anne looked over at her. “That’s… that’s really cool.”

“Aww, thanks. But in all honestly, anyone looks cool riding a dragon. It would be kind of impressive to not look cool doing something like that.”

“No, I-I mean, you’re cool. You’re really cool.”

Mattie looked down at her, and beamed like the sun. She didn't say a word as she clicked back to the page.

Then, she cleared her throat. “Hey,” She started, quietly. “I think I owe you an apology.”

Anne blinked. “What? Why?”

“About the whole brother-in-law thing? I could tell that was… on your mind.”

“Oh. Um, sorry.”

“Don’t you even start with the sorries, Anne. Look, I know I was being a bit cagey about the whole thing. And I know I sort of freaked you out on that phone call, with the whole ‘I don’t have a brother’ thing.”

Mattie paused there, and then sighed. “My family is… a little complicated, you know? Personal biz is not fun. But I shouldn’t have just left you stewing about it. Everything’s fine, nobody’s kidnapped, and, uh, yeah, don’t have a brother-in-law.”

“Then who’s-“

“Tyrone is Hunter’s brother. Never got married, so not technically a brother-in-law. That’s why I didn’t recognize it at first, you see?”

“Oh.” Anne glanced at his picture again. “That makes sense.”

“That’s good. Glad I could make that make sense for you.” She laughed a little tightly. “Family, amirite? They’re all messy and confusing and… just the worst.”

At that, Anne gave a wry smile. “I know that feeling.”

“Well, anyway, glad we got that sorted.” She pulled up a video. “Proper spellcasting stances, lesson one. This looks right. Come on, Anne! Let’s cast some spells!”

“Uh, we’re just doing the stances, right? Not actually-“

“Fireblast, go!”

* * *

Saturday. It was a rare cloudy afternoon, so Anne decided to sit outside. Alone.

She sat under a tree and buried herself in her assigned English book. _The Call of the Armoured Bear – _interesting book, if a little hard to get through. Yeah, it was better that she was on her own. She needed complete concentration-

Her phone buzzed and she picked it up. Mattie? No, just her parents, asking her what she’s doing. She sent them a little message, and sat back.

Mattie said the movie was at two. It was two fifty now. Anne sighed; she should have just gone. She didn’t know what she was thinking – she just got scared, like she always did. Stupid.

Stupid.

She turned a page, frowning. The trees rustled in the breeze, and she shivered. Huh. It was almost a little bit cold. Maybe she should have brought a jacket?

Her phone buzzed, and then it buzzed again. A call. Anne picked it up, but the name she saw wasn’t Mattie, or her parents.

“Danny?” Anne raised an eyebrow. She answered it. “Hello?”

“Hey!” Danny’s voice sounded breathless. “It’s you. Good. I need to talk to you.”

“What? About what?”

“I’ll text you my address – can you come over? Real quick?”

“Wait, what?”

“I just need to talk to someone – I don’t know who else to bring this up to, and you’re her friend, so I thought-“

Anne frowned. “Wait, what are you talking about? Are you okay?”

“It’s- I saw a- Her- ugh. Okay.” She could hear him take a long, deep breath. “It’s… It’s about Mattie. You were right. There is something up with her.”

Anne could feel a cold pit in her stomach. Danny kept talking.

“Can you come over? Please? And don’t say anything to Mattie.”


	8. Chapter 8

Danny’s place was more of a drive than Anne expected. She pulled up to an apartment block on the other side of town, a tall grayish building with brightly coloured doors. The only parking spot was right next to the dumpster; Anne wrinkled her nose as she got out.

Smelled like old Chinese food. She hurried across the street and pulled out her phone. Danny’s message was already on screen.

_ its on unicorn and thomas. Apt number 145, on the 2nd floor. _

Second floor. Anne skipped up the steps and started counting the room numbers. 175, 174, 173… this was going to be a bit of a walk. She trudged on, watching the pattern of red, blue, lime green doors go by, and thinking of Danny’s words.

_ You were right. There is something up with Mattie _.

Agitated, almost… panicked. She’d never heard him sound like that before.

What on earth happened at the movies? Anne’s mind was racing; she tried to calm down, but she couldn’t stop herself from jumping to all the wildest conclusions. Cult of Study Buddies – oh, my god, what if her parents were right? What if Mattie was actually in a cult and that would explain why Danny was so freaked out and-

No. She wouldn’t be in a cult… probably. Even though she did like demonology… no, stop, she was freaking herself out now. It probably had nothing to do with demons.

_ Don’t say anything to Mattie. _

It was fine. It was fine. Danny would explain.

Anne rounded a corner. 147, 146, and there it was, 145. Danny’s door was bright blue, but it looked like the paint had faded over time and there were scuff marks all over the frame. She checked the number again, and took a deep breath.

Then she knocked.

Nothing happened for a good few moments, and Anne thought about trying again before she heard Danny shout, “Coming!”

Another voice. “Who is that?”

“It’s just a friend. I’ll be there in a- Hey, wait, don’t answer-!”

The door swung open, and some guy Anne didn’t recognize glared down at her. He was shirtless, and all over his chest down to his star wars boxers he was covered in black, matted hair. There were deep bags under his eyes, and he was hunched over a little, leaning on the door with one hand and holding a cup of hot coffee with the other.

Like Danny, he had a pair of curled horns on either side of his head, Anne noticed. Minotaur.

“Uh, h-hi.” She squeaked as he looked her up and down. “I’m Danny’s… friend.”

“Another one. _ Great _.”

“Huh?”

“Are you like that chick with the glittery sweater who yells everything?” He rubbed his eyes. “Because I am so not dealing with her today.”

“Um…”

There was a slam from somewhere inside the room. Danny came into view, pulling a shirt over his chest. He grabbed a flashlight off the counter and waved at Anne.

“Hi! Sorry!” Then to the guy at the door: “Leave her alone, Gunnar. I told you I’d answer it.”

Gunnar crossed his arms. “You didn’t tell me you were having a friend over. She’d better be quiet, dude. I’ve got such a hangover right now.”

Anne nodded. “I’ll be quiet-“

“Seriously? You’re telling me to be quiet? I’m not the one who blasts my shows at two in the morning and makes my roommate ask me _three times in one night_ to please turn it down!”

“This again? I already said I was sorry about last night-“

“Last night? You’ve done it almost every night, man, and then you act like you have no idea what I’m talking about!”

“Look, I don’t know what you’re talking about-”

Danny _stamped_ his foot, and the whole doorframe seemed to shudder. Anne took a step back. She watched him close his eyes, pinch his nose, and take a deep breath.

“You’re such a…” He let it all out in a huff. “Whatever. Whatever, it doesn’t matter. Anne?”

“Y-yes?”

“Just come in. It’s fine.”

“And be quiet.” Gunnar met Danny’s sharp look. “What, I’m just saying! I’d better not hear her in my room.”

He shuffled off, leaving Anne and Danny alone. He looked a little disheveled too; not as much as Gunnar, but there were still heavy bags under his eyes and a wild look about his hair that gave her pause. It took all her effort not to glance down, not to stare at his weirdly-jointed legs and _ actual hooves _ not concealed by jeans and a pair of sneakers...

“Sorry about my roommate,” he said. “I should’ve warned you about him. He’s an ass.”

“Oh, it’s okay. He sounds, um, not fun to live with.”

Danny gave a chuckle at that. “He’s… he exists. He’s whatever. Come on. Let’s go to my room.”

He led her inside a rather messy little room, with one half a kitchen piled high with dishes and the other half a living room with a sofa full of laundry.

Through a door they went, into Danny’s room. It was better: he’d clearly picked up everything on the floor and put it on his dresser - it had a little heap of shirts and socks on the top. His laptop was open on his bed, and he was… What was he doing?

Anne stared at Danny as he kneeled down and stared at the bottom of the door, “Uh… Danny? What are you doing?”

“Okay, okay, okay.” He picked himself up, nodding his head at no one in particular. “That’s good. Anne? Can I…?”

“What? Can you what?”

He turned on the flashlight and shone in right in her eyes.

“Hey!” She squinted. “What are you doing? Danny?”

He turned it off. “Sorry. I just had to… make sure.”

“Make sure of what?” She watched him dash over to his laptop and click on it a few times. “Danny? Danny?”

His head shot up.

“What’s going on? Are you okay?” She hesitated. “What… what happened with Mattie?”

Danny took a deep breath. He seemed to calm himself down a little; his shoulders untensed, and he put the flashlight down.

“Mattie.” He said to himself, and then he looked back at her. “Yeah, yeah. Sorry, I’m just… a bit stressed. I’ll tell you what happened, It’s just- oh, do you want a seat?”

He pointed to a bean bag in the corner. There was a lot of black hair on it for a house that didn’t have a dog. Anne shook her head.

“No, thank you.”

“Okay. Oh-kay.” He sat back against his pillows. “I’ll explain it quick, but first, you have to promise not to tell anyone.”

“About what?”

“Look, I’ll tell you what I saw, but I don’t know whether I’m right, I don’t know if I’m missing something, and if I’m wrong it could really hurt Mattie.” He made a face. “She could get expelled, or… I don’t know. It could be really bad.”

“What could be really bad?”

Danny frowned at her, and she quailed.

“Sorry. I just… what kind of bad thing are you talking about? Is it like, cheating, or something else?”

“Maybe it is cheating? I don’t know. I don’t know!” He ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t know how to handle this, okay? I don’t want to get her in trouble. And you’re her friend too, so I thought this part would be easy but you’re being super weird about this and it’s stressing me out.”

He’d gone all tense again. Anne cringed. “I just-“

“Look, you can go if you’re not comfortable. I’ll figure it out-“

“No, no! Sorry, I-I do care about Mattie. I don’t want to get her in trouble either, but…” She stopped herself, and sighed. “Okay, okay. I promise I won’t tell anyone.”

“You sure?”

“Yes. I promise.”

Danny nodded. “Okay.”

He slid the laptop off of his knees.

“Oh-kay. Okay, okay, okay.” He clapped his hands together, and let them fall on his lap. “This is gonna be kinda weird, okay? But just stay with me.”

“Okay.”

“So I was going to the movies with Mattie, okay?” He rubbed his face. “Probably a mistake, it was way too loud for me. But anyway, I went to her house and she drove me to the movies, then we drove back and I hung out at her house for a while.”

Anne raised an eyebrow. “Okay.”

“And it was cool. I dunno, her kid’s cool, her brother’s…” He clenched his fists. “But I’m leaving, and as I’m walking out the door I notice her wards. They were all black, Anne. All of them.”

He said that like it was a big deal. She tilted her head. “Uh… what does that mean?”

“Wards being black?” He pointed to the bottom of his door. “Look at mine.”

Anne leaned down, and saw little symbols etched into the frame and the baseboard. They were glowing a soft blue.

“Noiseproofing wards. I put those in after my roommate made a huge stink about Mattie. See the colour?” 

“Yeah?”

“They’re blue. That’s what they’re supposed to look like.” He picked up what looked like a squeaky toy. “Watch.”

He squeezed the toy, and it let out a high-pitched whine. Anne watched the wards turn a flickering yellow before returning to their original colour.

“Okay. So they change colour when they’re working.” She blinked. “Why do you have a squeaky toy?”

Danny stashed it under his covers. “Not important. But you see how it darkened just a little when I did that?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, Mattie’s ones were darkened a _ lot _. I’ve never seen wards look like that; they almost looked like burn marks.” His eyebrows knitted together, and he shook his head. “There’s something really, really powerful in her house. My heart stopped when I saw that; I tried to point it out to Mattie, I tried to tell her, but she… brushed me off. Laughed about it, tried to pretend it’s no big deal.”

Anne thought of the phone call she’d had, the way Mattie could flip like a switch and laugh about her brother in law while her heart was still racing at the thought of a kidnapping.

“I know what you mean.”

“Her and… ‘Uncle Al’, they practically pushed me out of the door. You were right, Anne. They’re hiding something.” He paused. “Wait, how did you find out?”

“Uh, well, it’s not really – well, your story doesn’t make any sense, but yesterday she explained-“

“Huh? What are you trying to say?”

Anne took a deep breath. “Okay, so a couple days ago I was having lunch with my parents, but first I saw Tyrone and Rebecca-“

“Tyrone?”

“I think he’s also Uncle Al?” She watched Danny’s frown deepen. “Yeah, that’s weird, but… yeah. Okay, anyway, so after dinner I say I texted her and said I saw her daughter and ‘her brother.”

“Okay.”

“A-and then she calls me and she’s really freaked out because she says she doesn’t have a brother?” Anne shrugs. “But then she said she mixed it up and said he was actually her brother in law.”

“Yeah, that’s weird.”

“But I mean, later it does make sense? Because she explained she never got married to a guy and so he’s not technically her brother in law and that’s why she got confused?”

Danny raised his eyebrows.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“That’s such a BS excuse. Hah!” He gave a short laugh, and Anne cringed.

“Yeah, yeah. Totally… obvious. I did not fall for that at all.”

He started typing on his laptop. “Brother in law… oh, there’s her facebook page. How long ago was boyfriend?”

Anne made a face. “Uh, Danny, that’s kind of… I think he, uh, died? I don’t think you should-”

“I’m not trusting a word she says until I get to the bottom of this. Okay, is it… Hunter?”

She shut her mouth and nodded.

“Hah! And he looks like that?”

“Looks like what?”

“Looks nothing like his ‘brother’, that’s for sure!” Danny turned the laptop around and showed her the same picture of Hunter leaning against the door. “You’ve seen Al, he looks way more like Mattie’s brother than this guy’s!”

Anne looked at him, and… it was true. Hunter was very tall, with flaming red hair and freckles all over his face. She thought back to Tyrone; she did think him and Mattie were very, very similar when she first met him. Almost like twins.

Danny shook his head. “This is a total lie. She’s definitely hiding something.”

“But what’s going on? What’s she hiding?”

“Well, there’s an option, but I don’t like it.” He started typing again. “The wards, they looked like standard household ones; they just protect from a few general things, like ghosts, destructive magic, changelings, that kind of thing. But none of those would make a ward go black.”

Anne frowned. “Well, what would?”

“Well, uh, very powerful magic would do that. Not the kind a human – or any physical being, for that matter – could possess.”

An inkling of an idea formed in Anne’s mind. She felt like a bucket of ice had been poured over her, and she froze in place. “So… a nonphysical being. Like something from the Mindscape.”

“Yeah.” The same dread was written all over Danny’s face. “Something you could summon to help you pass a college course. Or to give your friend a detailed explanation on warding.” His voice softened. “Or to babysit your kid while you go to class.”

“A demon.” Anne breathed. Danny nodded.

“I really hope I’m not right, but… I don’t know. What other explanation is there?”

Anne staggered back. A demon. _ Mattie summoned a demon_.

“Maybe she doesn’t realize? I don’t know, I don’t know how to talk to her about it. This is really dangerous – and she’s got her kid, too! What are we supposed to do? Anne?"

This was exactly what her dad said would happen. _ He was right_, and she didn’t listen, and now-

“Anne?”

Anne looked up. Met his eyes. She clenched her fists.

“We’ve got to go to the police.”

Danny blinked. “What?”

“We’ve got to go to the police. And report this. Right now.”

“Are you crazy?” He sat up. “We’ve got to at least talk to Mattie first! We-“

“No. No. I’m not doing this. I’m going to the police.”

“Don’t! Do you have any idea how long people get for summoning? You can’t-“

“I can.” Anne clenched her fists. “I’m sorry. I-I know I promised, but I can’t… I can’t do this. I can tell the police, and they can handle it, and we’ll all be safe.”

He shook his head. “Please don’t. Anne…”

She turned away.

“Are you serious? Look, why don’t we call Mattie right now, and- No?“ Danny growled as she opened the door. “No, you’re not even gonna do that? Okay, fine! Go to the police! It’s not like she could go to jail or anything! Nooo, that’s fine! Some friend you are!”

There was a banging from Gunnar’s bedroom. “Shut the hell up, Danny!”

Anne walked past it all, out the front door, onto the winding path past all the numbers. Her heart was racing, and she walked faster, faster. Soon she was running, soon she was tearing down the pathway, sprinting for her life like Mattie’s own demon was right at her heels.

Down the stairs. Across the road. Into her car.

Her hands shook as she tried to insert the key. It revved up; music started playing from the radio, and she jabbed it off. 

Anne peeled away from the parking lot and braked hard at the entrance to the road. She tapped her fingers on the steering wheel as the cars zoomed by, no opening in sight.

“Come on, come on…”

She looked this way and that, and then-

He was right in front of her car. Brown hair. Top hat. Long, black suit. Black-on-yellow eyes, glowing with a intensity that was…

…that was…

…_ captivating _…

* * *

Anne blinked. She looked first at her hands – they were on the steering wheel. She looked around – she was in her car.

She was going home. Right.

Anne looked this way and that. No cars, no people; she was clear to pull out. Still, she checked one more time before easing herself onto the road and getting up to speed. The car hummed and the air rushed past, and it took her a few seconds to notice why it felt like something was missing.

The radio. She turned it on, and some talk show host started blabbing in her ear. With a frown, she tuned it until music was playing. Then, she sat back.

It still felt like… something was missing. She frowned, trying to rack her brain. There’d been Danny, there’d been the police station – right, she had to let him know how _that _disaster went when she got back home – there’d been… something else.

She couldn’t remember it, though. Huh.

Anne frowned as she thought, and she kept thinking the whole way home.


End file.
